stress test

[low_delta]

I mentioned I had been experiencing a tight feeling in my chest. It went away after I saw the doctor and got an EKG. His investigations and the EKG showed there was nothing wrong with my heart, but he sent me for a stress test anyway.

So I had to skip breakfast, and then do a treadmill workout. The tech who ran me through it put electrodes on my chest. First she got a trimmer and shaved my chest in spots, then she got sandpaper to exfoliate the spots. Then alcohol. That wasn't too comfortable. It wasn't so bad the moment she did it; the bad part was that it kept stinging for a long time. Apparently they have trouble with the electrodes coming off when people sweat. I should have told her I don't sweat much.

Then the ultrasound technician came in, and she looked at my heart. I could see it on the screen, so that was kinda cool. I could see the valves working, and all that.

And then the doctor came in and they started me on the treadmill. I started out with a walk, then a faster walk, then a really fast walk. Five minutes each? My heart was really going. Then I had to really quickly get back on the bed-thing so they could look at my heart again. And hold my breath so they could see it easily before the heart rate subsided.

The doctor said everything looked fine.

The tech was kinda jokey through the whole thing. Like, "we're getting a new machine soon. How would you like to come back and try it out?" As I left, she said "wasn't this just a whole lot of fun?" I said it would be the most fun I'd have all day. I wasn't exactly lying. I went back to work, and then to my mom's to replace a faucet in the evening. It was certainly very interesting! But then there was an accident on the freeway that gnarled our traffic all afternoon, so that was pretty interesting too.

Comments

[sunshine-two.livejournal.com]

so, is it stress related?

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Maybe. No idea.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Manolo and I have stress tests twice a year (just had ours a coupler of weeks ago) and they actually are kind of fun if nothing is wrong. They sure do put a lot electrodes on a person.

Didn't they incline the treadmill so it felt like you were walking fast uphill?

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the third stage was *almost* fast enough I needed to jog. Uphill.

[promiseoftin.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear everything's working properly!

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

More or less, yeah.

[ravenfeather.livejournal.com]

Interesting! :)

stress test

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

Glad you got that over with. Seeing my pumping heart would be freaky.

Re: stress test

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I thought it was interesting. Except that the beating onscreen matched what I left, it didn't seem real. Just a video.